From D-Student with Zero Experience To Trading At Goldman Sachs: Weston Nakamura’s Story

Explicit content warning

04/18/24 • 54 min

Across The Spread

From my presentation to the investment club at Temple University Japan Campus on March 28, 2024.

Contingency Planning: my “religion” for markets, trading, & careers (risk management)
My Background: Bottom academics, no institutional experience, no markets knowledge, move to Tokyo with nothing → Goldman futures trading desk → Jefferies equity sales
Trading Markets: Learn about YOURSELF WITHIN MARKETS (& not markets themselves). Pay market tuition & never take a market loss. BIG WINS are produced by: Luck + Prioritize focus, effort & intended mindset upon mitigating BIG LOSSES + Luck
Career Commentary: Preparing for the Coming Crisis of Major Widespread & Permanent Job Destruction from Disruption - the risk of specialization, expertise & experience. Contingency Planning.
Q&A: Advantage of NOT being Ivy League.

A big thank you to the investment club at Temple University Japan!

Support Across The Spread by subscribing on Substack:

https://westonnakamura.substack.com

Follow Weston on X: @acrossthespread

/ acrossthespread

acrossthespread.com

—

Video Clip:

Charlie Rose

06/10/2014

Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and C.E.O. of Goldman Sachs, on the shale revolution, Wall Street, and income inequality.

https://charlierose.com/videos/29860

—

NONE of this is trading or career advice, or education. All views are solely that of Weston Nakamura and Across The Spread.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From my presentation to the investment club at Temple University Japan Campus on March 28, 2024.

Contingency Planning: my “religion” for markets, trading, & careers (risk management)
My Background: Bottom academics, no institutional experience, no markets knowledge, move to Tokyo with nothing → Goldman futures trading desk → Jefferies equity sales
Trading Markets: Learn about YOURSELF WITHIN MARKETS (& not markets themselves). Pay market tuition & never take a market loss. BIG WINS are produced by: Luck + Prioritize focus, effort & intended mindset upon mitigating BIG LOSSES + Luck
Career Commentary: Preparing for the Coming Crisis of Major Widespread & Permanent Job Destruction from Disruption - the risk of specialization, expertise & experience. Contingency Planning.
Q&A: Advantage of NOT being Ivy League.

A big thank you to the investment club at Temple University Japan!

Support Across The Spread by subscribing on Substack:

https://westonnakamura.substack.com

Follow Weston on X: @acrossthespread

/ acrossthespread

acrossthespread.com

—

Video Clip:

Charlie Rose

06/10/2014

Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and C.E.O. of Goldman Sachs, on the shale revolution, Wall Street, and income inequality.

https://charlierose.com/videos/29860

—

NONE of this is trading or career advice, or education. All views are solely that of Weston Nakamura and Across The Spread.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

"A World Where There Is An Interest Rate" | Grant Williams (Part 3)

In the last of this three-part series from Across The Spread on Japan's impact on global markets with Grant Williams and Weston Nakamura, we dive into the front-and-center matter of exiting the world's last negative policy rate yield-anchor and what Bank of Japan “normalization” really means.

Read on Across The Spread Substack:

➣"Dark Skies at Aozora Bank" (Feb 1, 2024)

bit.ly/ats_Aozora_Bank

➣"What BOJ Thinks of Japan Wages and Negative Rates" (Mar 7, 2024)

bit.ly/ats_BOJ_Wages_Prices

➣"Quick Note on Market-Moving BOJ Negative Rates Headline" (Mar 15, 2024)

bit.ly/ats_Jiji_NegRate

Watch all 3 episodes of Grant Williams on Across The Spread Substack (video)

▷(Part 1) The Japan Bubble

bit.ly/ats_Video_G_Williams_Pt1

▷(Part 2) Navigating the Age of "Finfluencers"

bit.ly/atsVideo_G_Williams_Pt2

▷(Part 3) Bank of Japan's Policy Normalization

bit.ly/atsVideo_G_Williams_Pt3

Grant Williams is the author of THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM..., host of the Grant Williams Podcast Series, and co-founder of Real Vision. Prior to pioneering the long-form interview format with the most interesting minds in finance, Grant’s career in institutional finance spanned various roles around the world - but started out in a wild-west corner of trading warrants in Tokyo, 1989 - at the peak of the great Japan bubble.

I strongly recommend subscribing to The Grant Williams series of podcasts and his newsletter grant-williams.com - particularly as it relates to his current focus on Japan. As a subscriber myself, I have gotten enormous value out of Grant’s work. Link below for the recent episode from Grant’s podcast with Jesper Koll on Japan, as discussed.

THE GRANT WILLIAMS PODCAST: JESPER KOLL (December 29, 2023)

https://www.grant-williams.com/podcast/jesper-koll

Follow Grant on X @ttmygh

https://twitter.com/ttmygh

Follow Weston on X @acrossthespread

https://twitter.com/acrossthespread

And if you found this content to be of any value, please support Across The Spread by subscribing to original content, and share with others who you feel may also benefit from it.

As always, thank you all for your support.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

The Return of Yentervention

Weston Nakamura's guest appearance on Endgame Podcast with @peruvian_bull discussing the Bank of Japan, Ministry of Finance and the latest round of yenterventions.

Endgame Podcast: Welcome to the YenGame with Weston Nakamura

(Filmed on Friday May 3rd 2024)

2:10 Background of Bank of Japan's Radical Policy Experimentation

11:45 How Yield Curve Control Ultimately Failed

19:30 Limitations To Further JGB Buying, And Unwinding

22:57 The Carry Trade

27:52 🇯🇵BOJ + 🇦🇺RBA’s Dual YCC, AUD/JPY Carry Trade, and Risk Assets in 2020

32:10 Current State of JPY Carry Trade

37:15 Japan’s Playbook: “Aggressively Waiting” & The Unknown

45:25 “Too Big To Fail Countries” - Japan’s Moral Hazard

50:45 Yentervention Week and Near-Term Markets

56:30 A Failed Yentervention: Japan’s Biggest Immediate-Term Fear